Help Me With Fall Landscape Maintenance

[Anonymous]

We moved into a new house in May and I have no experience with maintaining landscaping. We have mowed, of course. And I know we will need to deal with leaves. But there are some beds with bushes in front of the house that I don't know how to care for.

They aren't big beds, they just run the length of the house (a 50s rambler) and are raised with stones around the front. There is a bit scraggly rose on each side -- each rose bush coming way out of the front of bed. They had beautiful roses this spring, but the shape of the bushes is bad. I don't know how to describe it other than to say scraggly? There are several other small bushes. Other than that -- weeds. What all do I need to do? Prune the bushes -- but how? What do I need to know about doing this with the rose bushes? I'd like to plant some bulbs so we have some flowers in the spring, but we have many many deer here and I heard they eat the tulips? Can I do daffodils? Something else? Should I mulch it after pruning or just wait until spring to mulch it? I don't want to bother too much with it, as we are renting, but do want it to look nicer this spring.

Thanks much. I haven't had to do this before. Google has so much info, and much of it contradicting, so it's confusing. We are in NoVA if that matters.

[Anonymous]

If you can take pictures and share it here, that would help greatly. By and large, deer do not touch daffodils. If you have good soil and shade, you can try many native ephemerals, such as Virginia bluebells. Those are also deer resistant.

As for the roses, you have to wait until next year to prune. Do it in March or so, before they break dormancy. You can trim off dead branches, and anything that is crossing right now, but the majority should wait until after winter.

For maintenance, pull the weeds. Put down mulch, which will keep you from having to weed over and over again.

[Anonymous]

Mow your leaves. Bagging leaves is wasteful use of natural fertilizer and fills landfills, meaning they have to make more landfills near you and stink up the country.
Mow when they are dry, as wet or damp leaves will now mulch properly. Don't use the mulching block on the grass chute either, as that just gums up the mower, but let them eject out the chute and mow the yard twice.
As far as pruning, buy some hand held pruners and some loppers for larger stuff. Plants are survivors, so trim them up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mow your leaves. Bagging leaves is wasteful use of natural fertilizer and fills landfills, meaning they have to make more landfills near you and stink up the country.
Mow when they are dry, as wet or damp leaves will now mulch properly. Don't use the mulching block on the grass chute either, as that just gums up the mower, but let them eject out the chute and mow the yard twice.
As far as pruning, buy some hand held pruners and some loppers for larger stuff. Plants are survivors, so trim them up.

Yes, please don't rake and bag your leaves.
You can just rake them into your flower beds to serve as mulch and habitat for beneficial insects over the winter.
Or mulch into lawn as PP describes.
And as you maintain or replace or add to your landscaping, please consider native-only varieties and grasses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mow your leaves. Bagging leaves is wasteful use of natural fertilizer and fills landfills, meaning they have to make more landfills near you and stink up the country.
Mow when they are dry, as wet or damp leaves will now mulch properly. Don't use the mulching block on the grass chute either, as that just gums up the mower, but let them eject out the chute and mow the yard twice.
As far as pruning, buy some hand held pruners and some loppers for larger stuff. Plants are survivors, so trim them up.

Yes, please don't rake and bag your leaves.
You can just rake them into your flower beds to serve as mulch and habitat for beneficial insects over the winter.
Or mulch into lawn as PP describes.
And as you maintain or replace or add to your landscaping, please consider native-only varieties and grasses.

OP here. Thanks. We won't bag our leaves -- our property abuts Wolf Trap woods so if we have more than we need for mulch we'll just drag them back there on a sheet.

[Anonymous]

Rose bushes don't look great when they aren't in bloom (I don't think most of them look great even with flowers). They are grown for the flowers, not the foliage. You might look into planting other things around them like small boxwoods that would stay green and block them in the winter but not compete in the summer.

If you want to plant a lot of bulbs, get a bulb auger for your cordless drill, it will save you so much time and energy. You can order bulbs from Van Engelen in bulk, they will tell you which varieties are deer-resistant (or not) and you can buy a mix of 100 gorgeous daffodils for $70-80.

[Anonymous]

Hire someone who knows how to do it.

[Anonymous]

Besides mowing your leaves up, easy to do when they are dry, you could rake some of them up and start a compost pile with them to make mulch for your flowerbeds.
Tilling the leaves into the flowerbeds works also if you don't overdo it, as the decomposition of brown organics robs the soil of nitrogen, so fertilize the beds some if you till in the leaves or add compost on them.

As far as bushes, buy a cheap $30 set of shears (think big scissors) and have at it. Shape them how they want to be or how you want them.